High-end PC builder Puget Systems released records showing that its current failure rate of 13th- and 14th-generation Intel processors is a little over 2%, while systems it has shipped with AMD Ryzen 5000 and 7000 chips have a little over 4% failure rate. However, numerous caveats apply, which we'll cover below. This isn’t the data we expected, especially with Intel’s instability woes currently making the headlines. The data stands in stark contrast to other reports from game developers that have cited from 50% to 100% failure rates for Intel chips in their environments. Surprisingly, Puget's data also points to much higher failure rates for Intel's 11th-Gen chips.
Puget released the information as part of its announcement that it will extend its Intel system warranty to three years. Intel has already announced that it will extend its chip warranty for the boxed (retail) 13th- and 14th-gen processors by two years, bringing most of its chips to a five-year warranty (exceptions apply). However, Intel hasn't been specific about warranty increases for its tray processors (the chips sold for OEM systems like Puget's). Intel has said that customers with pre-built systems should contact their OEM. As such, it's possible that Puget's announcement of its extended warranty might foreshadow pending announcements from other vendors.
Another interesting tidbit that Puget revealed is that Intel’s 11th-generation Intel Core processors had the most failures among all recent processors, with a recorded rate of over 7%. The issues with 11th-Gen Intel Core processors haven’t been widely reported, so we’re unsure about their cause and how (or if) Intel resolved them.
As with all failure rate data that doesn't come directly from the chipmaker, Puget's data should be taken with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, chipmakers don't divulge that information, making any publicly available failure rate data worthy of a closer look. We do caution that this information isn't indicative of failure rates for other companies, especially due to Puget's system tuning policies.
Above, you can see the absolute number of chip failures the company has seen with each generation of Intel processors. Puget notes that it only sells Intel's top two models, the XX700K and XX900K, so only the failure rates of those specific models are included in the data — that's an important caveat, as these are the highest-end Intel models that are thought to suffer from the issue the most.
Puget says it hasn't trusted the default settings on motherboards since 2017, so every system it builds uses Puget’s own BIOS settings that were built following conservative Intel and AMD guidelines, thus avoiding the excessive voltage and power settings often seen on enthusiast-class motherboards. The company says that this is probably why the failures of its Intel 13th- and 14th-generation are more muted than others in the industry.
The company provided a further breakdown indicating whether the failures were observed in its shop or in the field, saying that it hasn't seen failures in the field this high since the 11th-Gen processors. "We’re seeing ALL of these failures happen after 6 months, which means we do expect elevated failure rates to continue for the foreseeable future and possibly even after Intel issues the microcode patch," Jon Bach, the President of Puget Systems. The company notes that these field failures amount to roughly 5 to 7 per month, which it says is hard to classify as a "huge issue."
The company also provided the failure rate data expressed in percentages and included failures for AMD's Ryzen 5000 and 7000 series processors. As you can see, Intel's 11th-Gen chips failed much more often than the Ryzen chips, but Intel's maligned 13th- and 14th-Gen chips are a few percentage points lower. There are a number of important caveats to consider, though.
To determine the scale of the findings, we asked Puget about the number of systems the PC builder has shipped. “We don’t do a ton of volume, but it’s enough for some statistical relevance. The exact number and distribution changes a bit over time, but we do about 200 workstations a month on [AMD] Ryzen/[Intel] Core. Typically, we can see more Core than Ryzen sales (call it an 80/20% split) but in 2021 that was inverse as Ryzen had a particularly competitive product. Those numbers omit all our EPYC, Xeon, Threadripper sales,” Bach told Tom's Hardware.
When viewing the comparative Intel and Ryzen dataset, you should take into account the relatively small sample size coupled with the disproportionate number of units shipped. While AMD Ryzen 5000 and 7000 series chips have a higher failure rate in terms of percentage, we should also note that these chips were launched in 2020 and 2022, while the 13th- and 14th-gen Intel chips were launched in 2022 and 2023.
Recent data also showed that 13th-gen Intel Core processors have "a steady and elevated failure rate," while the 14th-gen Intel chips had a "recent spike of failures." That is consistent with what we would expect from a chip degradation issue that would intensify over time. Puget also notes that Intel failure rates will likely increase in the future.
"You can see that in context, the Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen processors do have an elevated failure rate but not at a show-stopper level. The concern for the future reliability of those CPUs is much more the issue at hand, rather than the failure rates we are seeing today. If it is true that the 14th Gen CPUs will continue to have increasing failures over time, this could end up being a much bigger problem as time goes by and is something we will, of course, be keeping a close eye on," said Bach.
Based on this information, coupled with the higher failure rates cited in other reports, aggressive BIOS power settings set by motherboard manufacturers could be one of the contributing factors to Intel's failures, likely either exacerbating or accelerating chip degradation.
Intel recently announced that it has found the root cause for these issues and is releasing an update patch to prevent its processors from degrading in the future. Unfortunately, processors that have already failed or are currently failing will be unfixable. Intel extended the warranty on its 13th- and 14th-generation processors in response to this, but some customers are allegedly facing RMA horror stories when trying to return their affected chips.
Despite Puget's lower-than-expected failure rates for the latest Intel chips so far, it’s still planning to keep a close eye on 14th-gen Intel processors as “this could end up being a much bigger problem as time goes by.” But, at least for now, the numbers it has gathered aren’t at critical levels yet.
Puget also released a list of steps it is taking in response to the matter:
- In the majority of cases, we are staying the course for now. Various BIOS updates have been launched by motherboard manufacturers to provide more conservative power settings, but in our opinion, they don’t quite hit the mark. They are either too conservative in some places (leading to unacceptable loss in performance) or they are not conservative enough. We trust our internally developed settings more. We also are concerned with the rise in failure rate, but it is not at a level of severity that changes our CPU recommendations for our customer workflows.
- We will immediately validate the Intel microcode update when it is released. We will start with internal testing for stability and performance. If it passes that testing, we will begin using it on our shipping configurations as soon as possible.
- We will contact all our affected customers to provide the Intel microcode update. We will do this after gaining some internal experience and confidence with the update, and have developed detailed guides on how to install it while preserving our recommended BIOS settings.
- We are extending our warranty to 3 years for all customers affected by this issue, regardless of warranty purchased. With a Puget Systems PC, you should be able to count on it working for you. If
